I mentioned in my last post that a very late and accordingly feeble sunflower is still trying to grow in the garden. So here it is for all to see:
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| Sunflower |
The point of course is that we would normally have had a substantial frost by now and it looks like we will be into the second half of November before there is one, so it's good to focus in on the flowers we wouldn't normally be seeing. In fact there are several garden patches where things are continuing to bloom, notably a couple of sweet peas and some survivors from a pack of seed I hopefully spread on one of the borders next to the lawn.
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| Sweet Pea |
 | | Border |
|  | | Border |
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There are a couple of hanging baskets still thriving and one or two other bits and pieces.
The trend has continued on my trips out. On Saturday I finished off a cycle run at Wylam on the off chance there might still be ivy bees around. There weren't but the ivy was certainly still in flower and there were honey bees and a single buff-tailed bumblebee plus an imitator that I haven't so far identified.
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| Bee Imitator |
On Sunday I had another trip to Seaton Sluice where I again failed to catch up with the snow buntings. Here there was a fair quantity of white dead nettle in flower and a few sprigs of what is apparently Valerian (never heard of!)
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| Valerian |
As far as the birds were concerned, there weren't any stonechats this time, but I did find a couple of goldfinch feeding on seed. Sometimes also you notice something new about a bird that's common - in this case that starlings have some brown wing feathers.
 | | Starlings |
|  | | Goldfinch |
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Similarly, what did these sparrows find so interesting about the harbour wall?
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| Sparrows |
Although temperatures will be falling slowly, it looks like the October weather will last for at least another week.
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